


Fire in the Heart

by LettersByTheLake



Category: Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda) - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, Fire, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Pain, Trauma, smoke inhalation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:21:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23819824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LettersByTheLake/pseuds/LettersByTheLake
Summary: The air was thick with smoke and heat and Twilight’s eyes wept as he struggled to keep them open. His nose and throat burned and his lungs were begging for air. He couldn’t see two feet in front of him, the black smoke was everywhere.He could hear the screams though.
Relationships: Four & Hyrule & Legend & Sky & Time & Twilight & Warriors & Wild & Wind (Linked Universe), Time & Twilight (Linked Universe), Twilight & Wild (Linked Universe)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 251





	Fire in the Heart

The world was burning.

The air was thick with smoke and heat and Twilight’s eyes wept as he struggled to keep them open. His nose and throat burned, and his lungs were begging for air. He couldn’t see two feet in front of him, the black smoke was everywhere.

He could hear the screams though.

They were coming from all around him and he didn’t know if they were from his friends or the citizens of Wild’s Hyrule. Both, he imagined.

Fear gripped him tight, its fiery tendrils warped with confusion as Twilight desperately tried to find someone, _anyone,_ through the thick, dark world entrapping him in its fury.

It had only been one building. One, with tendrils of flames erupting from the roof and plumes of black smoke spewing from the windows. And there was a little girl, so helpless within, her mother crying, _begging_ outside for her daughter to _please come back to her, please Hylia let her be safe._ And Twilight, the first to the scene of the nine of them, had run in without hesitation.

He had been in there, what, ten minutes, a wetted cloth to his face, his eyes streaming and his lungs desperate for fresh air and the girl in his arms, for he wasn’t going to leave without the girl. And it had been worth it, it always was. He risked his life again and again for his friends, for his family and for people he had never met, and he did it gladly. But he had come out, not to fresh air, not to the desolate green wasteland that was this version of Hyrule, but to more of the same. The whole damned village was up in flames.

He held the girl now, held her close to his chest hoping to filter her breaths a little through his clothes. She was crying quietly, her small form shaking with terror and tears.

He was pretty sure it wasn’t just the lack of air and the heat making his own eyes water now.

A sword came out of the thick wall of smoke, and it took him a second to figure out if it was one of his own or an unknown enemy’s before he parried the first blow with his raised sword.

Enemy then.

Barely breathing from the fear and smoke, his eyes half shut, the fight commenced. His assailant was nimble and fast and seemed undeterred by the burning world and his movements were slow and sluggish. The girl was still clutched in one arm and she wasn’t crying any more, _Hylia, was she dead?_ He was doing his best to shield her from the attack.

He had no chance, no chance at all and he realised this early on. The aggressor seemed to come from every direction, from in front, behind, even above and he couldn’t see to premeditate the attacks. It was all he could do to shield the girl and block each blow the best he could, but the sword still slashed once against his arm adding a bright, stinging pain to the dark ache that consumed the rest of him.

This was where it would end, he knew, all paths had led to this moment, and he felt so very sad. He would die in this place where no way was up, and the fire would cremate his flesh and scorch his bones. He had lived through so much he had almost started thinking of himself as invincible, and yet that couldn’t be, could it. He thought of his friends who were more like a family now and he desperately hoped they were ok, and he thought of the people of Ordon Village, back there in another life and the feeling of home they brought him. He lowered his sword and wrapped himself fully around the girl in his arms, sinking to his knees, the least he could do now was save her, if there was anything left to save. He waited for the next blow, that next fatal blow and he choked not on smoke but on sorrow and grief as he said a silent goodbye to this strange, strange life he had found himself in.

But the blow never came. Instead emanated a strangled scream from somewhere very close and a voice that was so beautifully familiar.

“Twilight? Pup?” it choked out, and Twilight tried to call out but found he couldn’t. Instead, he choked on a lungful of something wet and unpleasant that caught in his throat and prevented him from making any sound at all.

“Pup?!”

He could hear him so close, just a few feet away and if only he could call to him, but his lungs were concentrated on getting any oxygen at all into his lungs.

_“Pup!”_

He heard relief in the voice now and he wondered why until he felt hands on his back helping him up and the girl being taken from him. No, he was not letting her go and he held her tight, fighting against the pull of those arms and they eventually left her alone. He felt a body next to him supporting his weight because he couldn’t seem to stand on his own and a cloth was pressed to his mouth that made breathing harder at first and then a little bit easier. They were moving purposefully through the smoke now, in which direction he did not know, his orientation had been taken from him long ago.

He closed his stinging eyes against the burning, letting himself be led and trusting that things could only get better. Eventually, he felt the smoke start to thin and the screams died down a little and then someone else was at his other side supporting more of his weight. He heard more cries, but of a different kind now, they sounded worried and scared rather than downright terror-filled, but he couldn’t pick one out individually, they were all blurred together under the ringing in his ears.

The cloth was taken away from his face and he was set down on the ground breathing in laboured lungfuls of beautifully sweet clear air. Someone was holding him up while someone else was trying to take the girl away from him again. He had forgotten he was even still carrying her and hoped he hadn’t been squeezing her too tightly. He fought against their parting once again.

“It’s ok Pup, let him take her, you’re safe now,” said a calm voice close to his ear.

Time’s familiar tone was enough for him to reluctantly let her go.

He choked, struggling to find breath again, his throat kept getting blocked and a hand found his back, rubbing in soothing circles.

“It’s ok, you’ll be alright, just breathe.”

 _Easier said than done,_ he thought.

His chest was on fire and his eyes and nose were burning and he started to panic again because he needed oxygen _now_ and he couldn’t see because his eyes were tight shut against the pain.

“He’s turning blue!” A voice said to his right. Wind, maybe.

“I know, he’ll be ok, just keep him upright.”

He continued desperately taking in as much oxygen as possible, choking after every breath. Eventually, he coughed up something wet that tasted like blood and soot and his airway was cleared somewhat, letting him breathe a little easier.

“Well done,” Time said, his voice drenched with relief, “just keep breathing. Can you open your eyes?”

He tried to open them just a slit and the burning increased severely.

He shook his head.

“That’s ok, drink this.”

Something was pushed into his hand and guided to his mouth. He took a sip and immediately choked and spluttered, his throat forcing the liquid out of his system. It was guided to his mouth again and this time cool water trickled down his burning throat both soothing it and increasing the pain at the same time.

He drank more and eventually his fluttering heart slowed to a more steady, rhythmic pace and his breathes, while still short, were constant and unlaboured.

The screams still sounded in the distance, but less now. He didn’t like to think of why that was. How many people had met their end in that dark, fiery world of destruction he had only just managed to escape?

“Is it better now?” asked Time and he nodded. He still felt like he was burning from the inside out, but the flames were just embers now. He felt himself grow suddenly extremely weary and the hands let him down to rest on the grassy floor.

He drifted off despite the chaos still happening so near.

  


  


When he woke again the screams had stopped and low, sombre chatter stippled with the sounds of quiet weeping and coughing had replaced it. The smell of smoke and blood was in the air, although he wasn’t sure if that was just from his own burning nose. He was leant upright on something soft.

He tried opening his eyes and found that he could, and while the world was blurry, he could make out a crowd of people just a little way in front of him.

It was morning now, the light coming in husky rays, a nice change from the darkness in which they had arrived in looking for shelter for the night.

“Twi?”

The thing he was leaning on shifted and he realised it was a person. Wild to be exact, and he was looking at him with a huge amount of concern.

“How are you feeling?”

“Cub?” considering his throat felt like the inside of a woodchopper, he was surprised he could make a sound at all, and though hoarse and painful, he found he could just about get the words out, “what happened?” he coughed.

“Yiga clan,” Wild said, his voice haunted and face twisted in anger “They started it. At first it was just the one house that you ran into then suddenly the whole village was burning from loads of different starting points. Time said he killed one of them when he was rescuing you.” His voice cracked. “He wouldn’t let us go in and help, it was too risky.”

Twilight felt the bandage on his arm and remembered his silent attacker. Ganon’s followers. It always stemmed back to Ganon.

The world was coming into more focus now and what Twilight saw was more than horrific. Ash floated in the air above the village a short way away, coating the ground and getting in people’s hair, making it look like it was snowing. There was nothing left. Blackened corpses lay over the bones of their homes, little more than an inch of their foundations left. Small tendrils of black smoke rose from several points into the sky which was cloudy and heavy with soot.

Closer sat the survivors, there couldn’t have been more than thirty or forty out of the couple hundred there must have been before. The Hylians were crying over the bodies of their loved ones whilst hugging each other tight, and others lay coughing and sooty on nothing but the hard ground. He saw the rest of their group checking on people and handing out red potions to those most in need. Hyrule was bandaging someone with nasty burns to their whole torso and Four was speaking animatedly to a woman further away.

There was something in the air beside the ash. It was a feeling. A feeling of deep, deep sorrow and hopelessness.

“It happened so fast,” Wild said, his words choked with emotion, “there wasn’t much we could do. I’ve never seen fire spread as quickly as this one.”

“Did- did that girl survive?” Twilight asked because he had to hold on to something. Amidst all this, could that little girl at least be safe?

Wild sniffed, “Yeah, she’s ok, we got her to her mother, they’re both fine.”

Somehow it didn’t make him feel much better.

The rest of the group started to walk over. They all looked shell-shocked and weary.

“Twi! how are you feeling?” asked Sky, his eyes lighting up just a little from his downcast face when he saw Twilight was awake.

“Better,” Twilight croaked. He felt bone-tired and still a little disorientated and his chest felt like an Ordonian goat was sitting on it, but he was feeling miles better than he had been before.

“We’ll need to keep an eye on you,” said Hyrule, “smoke inhalation can have long term effects.”

Time approached, his face a mask of strength hiding what Twilight knew to be horror and grief. His eyes were red and swollen from the smoke and his speech was strained as if he was holding back a cough.

“As much as I’d like for us to be able to stay here and rest, there’s not much more we can do here. I’ve said we’ll go to the nearest village and get help, see if they have any space to spare for these people. We can get a potion for Twilight there as well,”

“Kakariko is nearest,” said Wild, “it’s about half a day’s walk from here.”

Time sighed.

“Hey, Pup, how likely is it you’re going to be able to make that any time soon?” he asked softly.

“We could leave him here, come back for him later with the rest?” suggested Legend.

“No way, we’re not splitting up,” said Warriors forcefully.

Twilight coughed, but he set his face in determination. “I’ll be fine.”

They all looked a little sceptical, but they left a little less than an hour later. Wild and Wind kept stealing worried glances at Twilight the whole time and as annoying as it was, he felt his heart warm at how much they cared.

Morale was at an all-time low, the group uncharacteristically silent, each lost in their thoughts about the night’s events.

Twilight was coughing up black mucus every couple of minutes and they had to stop more than once so he could get through a particularly bad fit. Otherwise he was doing fine, his breaths were a little short, but regular and even. Despite the weariness, he was glad to have a purpose, and focusing his strength on walking took his mind off the village they had just left behind.

They must have been walking slower than normal, maybe to accommodate him, because by the time they got to Kakariko it was well past midday.

“Link!” shouted a high-pitched voice and a little girl ran over to Wild. With a jolt, Twilight was reminded of the girl he had saved, perhaps the same age as her, and how still she had been in his arms.

Even to her youthful eyes, the white-haired girl could tell something was wrong as she took in their weary, downcast faces and the smell of smoke that clung to them.

“Are you ok?” she asked, her face falling.

Wild managed a smile and knelt to her level, “Hey Cottla, we’re fine, do you think you could run ahead and tell Impa we’re coming?”

She nodded enthusiastically and ran down the hill towards a big house that seemed awfully familiar to Twilight.

They traipsed through the town, earning looks from the villagers as they went past ragged and sooty. They reached the gate of the big house earning a slightly dirty look from a large guard to one side and climbed the stairs that led to the house and entered the carved wooden double doors. They found themselves in a large room with a small woman in a large hat sitting on what looked like a throne in their direct eye-line.

“L-link?” said a tall, nervous-looking girl to their left who looked surprised at their entrance despite their prewarning.

Wild gave her a quick smile before turning to the woman on the throne.

“Impa, this is-“

“I know who they are,” the woman spoke with an ancient, slow voice. They all looked in confusion. How could she possibly know who they were?

Time walked forward then, taking charge as usual.

“There’s a village about half a day to the West which was burned down by the Yiga Clan last night. We were wondering if you would offer sanctuary to those who are left?”

Her lined eyes were hard and solemn as she answered, “And how many are left?”

No one answered.

“Thirty-six,” said Four quietly after a moment.

They all looked to the floor, the weight of all those deaths lying heavy on their minds.

Impa spoke calmly. “Then that will not be a problem. Paya,” she spoke to the girl to her right listening intently to the conversation with shock plastered across her face, “tell Dorian to fetch them immediately with some volunteers to help carry the wounded.”

The girl, Paya, nodded quickly and scuttled away through the doors.

“You should all get some rest too before they arrive, Ollie will be more than willing to accommodate you at the inn,” Impa said, and a few of them nodded and smiled gratefully.

They left the house and Wild led the way to the inn opposite. The inn keep, Ollie, was enthusiastic if not surprised to have so many guests at once and Twilight was pretty sure he had woken up from a standing slumber when they had first walked in.

They happily removed their equipment with a clank on the ground and sat down, leaning against the wall or sitting on the beds. Now that they were stopped, an overwhelming wave of aching exhaustion came over Twilight.

Hyrule looked at him worriedly, “Hey, Twi, you should take a bed and get some rest.”

He felt for a moment like protesting. They all needed sleep. They looked bone-tired and haunted by their experience, looking downcast at their knees and at the floor and despite their ordeal, he predicted they would sleep soundly. But his own aches and pains led him to accept gladly.

“Ok, but only if you all get some sleep too,” he said, eyeing them.

They nodded.

“I’ll get you a red potion from somewhere,” said Warriors getting to his feet.

“No, that’s ok,” Twilight protested, “the villagers will need it more when they come.”

“No offence, but you look like you need it Twi,” he said in return with a slight smirk that didn’t quite reach his eyes, and he turned and walked out the door. But as Twilight got up onto one of the two beds, the cool, soft sheets beneath were bliss to his aching body and he fell asleep almost immediately.

  


  


  


He woke a few hours later with a start from a dream of fire and smoke and death, his heart racing and his lungs fighting for breath. The sight of a room of sleeping Links calmed him. Every single last one of them was asleep; he didn’t think that had happened in all the time he’d been with them. Wind was next to him in the bed snuggled up to his side and Hyrule and Legend were in the other, back to back. The others slept in a heap on the floor using their bags and clothes as pillows. Time sat sitting up against the wall which made Twilight smile. He suspected he had intended to watch over them but succumbed to his own exhaustion at some point.

He shifted Wind off him gently, trying his best not to wake him. He slept on soundly and peacefully and as much as Wind would hate him thinking it, he did look cute. He climbed off the bed and, deciding he needed some fresh air, he slid across the door of the inn and stepped outside to a cool, clear night. He was still having trouble breathing in deeply, but the night air felt good in his still slightly burning lungs. He walked across to a railing overlooking a serenely beautiful pond fed by a moonlit waterfall behind Impa’s house and watched some decorative orange and white fish dart about in its waters.

He wasn’t tired any more, but he had an empty pit in his stomach. He thought of the people of that village, their homes destroyed, their families and friends killed in excruciating pain, and he wondered if you could ever recover from something like that.

The Links had all been through a lot and they faced that every day. He thought about his own trials, his own losses all the time. It was a hanging weight when they laughed together, when they found a moment of comfort, always in the backs of their minds was the grief of those lost along their journeys.

No, you can never truly get over something like that.

He heard the door of the inn slide open and shut, and Time appeared at his side to watch the water alongside him.

“How are you doing Pup?” he asked.

Twilight paused.

“Thank you,” he said, “for saving me, I didn’t say before.”

“No problem at all,” Time replied. “The others wanted to come and help too but I didn’t like our chances in all honesty.”

Twilight nodded, “Yeah, it was pretty intense.”

The sounds of hushed chatter floated through the village then, and a large group of people looking dead on their feet walked through the entrance. Some were carrying stretchers between them and others supported the injured while they slowly made their way down the hill. They brought an air of distress with them, like they were releasing the emotion into the air, cold and quiet.

“They’re never going to be the same again,” said Twilight sadly, watching them.

“No,” Time said seriously, “they’re not. But they’ll move on.” He turned back to the waterfall. “So will we,” he added, “we always do.”

There was a pause.

“Sometimes I wish we didn’t have to,” said Twilight quietly.

“I know,” Time sighed, “I know.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! 
> 
> Also, this village does not actually exist in Wild's Hyrule in case you were confused. I couldn't bear to burn one of the actual villages so I made one up.


End file.
